Mist
by Hikari Sword
Summary: *OC centered* Tokiwadai is sending their students to the beach for a field trip. Everyone is allowed to invite one person from outside of the school to join in. There will be sand sculpting, coral reef diving, fireworks, an assassination... it'll be a blast! Really!
1. The Misterious Beach

**Disclaimer:** I do not own 'A Certain Magical Index' or its characters.

**Author:** This story's been in my head for a while now. Actually, my head's about a couple stories ahead of my writing, I just can't seem to get myself to sit down and write as much anymore thanks to other things (video games, TV and such). So this story's going to take quite some time to complete.

Kinda disheartening when you have all these tales that you currently want to write, but you need to trudge through the earlier works first to get to that point.

The main OCs here will be Lilian from "A Certain Flower" and Rutile from "Precious" (which actually follows up from Frozen Flower). A new one will be introduced right from the get go.

If you like, you can read those first, if not, then I'll summarize some important things to know about them here, so spoiler warning if you want to read those first.

Both of them are Tokiwadai students, and friends with Mikoto. Lilian is an ice type Esper with a split personality named Isolde. Lilian doesn't remember anything more than five years ago, and Isolde is hiding something from her regarding that. Rutile is a new transfer student, and roommate to Lilian, her power is manipulating the gravity of anything she touches.

Oh, I nearly forgot, I had tried to keep New Testament out as much as possible, but now I can't avoid it, however for the time being the only thing from NT in this story is that Mikoto knows about the Magic side.

XXX

* * *

Chapter 1: The Misterious Beach

_"The long wait is nearly over. ____Our preparations will soon reach their final stages. However, lately you have shown an excessive amount of, reservations. That is very unbecoming of you, Admiral."  
_

___"..." A muscularly large man and his two subordinates stay silent before the voice and his bodyguard._

___"I will give you one chance to prove your loyalty to the throne. _According to our intel, the Imagine Breaker will be out of Academy City for a couple of days. This is the most opportune moment to eliminate the greatest threat to our plan, and thus you are to assassinate him."

_"Assassinate?" one of the subordinates speaks out_

_"Is there a problem?"_

_"It's dishono-!"_

_"There is no problem," The large man interrupts. "We accept this mission."_

_"But Sir!"_

_"Very well, you are all dismissed." The owner of the voice vanishes quickly, but his bodyguard smirks before doing the same._

_"Sir! You can't-!"_

_"His loyalty is being tested, they chose this method to see whether he puts his honor or his loyalty first."_

_"Let's go," the large man orders them.  
_

XXX

* * *

"Haaa..." Kuroko sighs as she looks that the paperwork on the table. Across from her were two girls, one of them had short deep blue hair, had a short puffy ponytail, what appears to be hair in the shape of cat ears, golden eyes and wearing a Tokiwadai uniform. The other is slightly older, wore mostly regular street clothes, a few rips here and there in some provocative areas otherwise it was just roughed up. Her eyes were teal, hair was half black and half red and it's long enough to flow down below her waist.

Kuroko picks up the papers and looks to see if they're done. The blue haired girl's name was written as 'Katherine Rutile Sopheria' while the other girl is 'Sachya Atalanta'. Kuroko gives Rutile a serious look. "Didn't I tell you not to get into trouble? I already told you how the school like to keep a good public image."

"Her gang started it! Really!" Rutile points at Sachya.

"You're the one that was beating them to a pulp!" Sachya yells back.

"They shouldn't have been trying to rob me! Really!"

"Enough!" Kuroko slams her hand on the table. "From the eyewitness reports and Miss Sopheria's testimony, Miss Atalanta's gang, 'The Ravens' are going to be detained for a short period of time. I imagine a couple weeks if the school is lenient."

"And me?" Sachya asks.

"You're free to go, but you're on parole. You'll have to report to this number whenever you go to a location." Kuroko hands her a document.

"Fuuun..." Sachya sarcastically responds as she takes the papers.

"You should've thought twice about starting up a gang like that, or at least choose your members more carefully."

"Heh, me and a couple of the other guys only thought about doing it on a whim. We didn't think that it'd get that big or that out of hand. I was losing interest in it anyway."

"It was smart of you not to make any moves or attacks until after the rest of your gang was beaten up and Miss Sopheria attacked you first."

"I-it was an accident! Really!" Rutile protested. "I saw her move as soon as I took out the rest of her gang and I as in the heat of battle so I could only think that she was going to attack me! Really!"

"I was just trying to sneak out before I get messed up like them. I didn't think you'd knock them all out that fast! I had to defend myself."

Kuroko sighs and palmed her face again. "And somehow almost the whole park was flattened from both of your gravity powers."

"That's mostly her! Really!" Ruitle tried to argue.

"Oh don't try to pin this on me! You wanna go? Huh? I'll send you to the moon!"

"Then I'll just use the moon to flatten you! Really!"

"Will you two KNOCK IT OFF!" Kuroko hits the both of them at the back of the head. Both of the girls rubbed the back of their heads. "Haaa... we're just about finished here. We just have to wait for Anti-Skill to come and double check the papers. In the meantime I have to hold the both of you here."

"Great..." Sachya mumbled as she sat back down.

Rutile sat down silently and they waited as Kuroko and Uiharu arrange some papers around the office.

"Oh, Miss Sopheria!" Uiharu suddenly talks to Rutile.

"Y-yes?"

"Did you find someone to invite to the beach?"

"N-no, I've only been in the city for a couple weeks. I don't really know anyone outside of the school, really."

"The beach?" Sachya asks. "What's going on there?"

"Oh, Tokiwadai has a special field trip this weekend," Uiharu answers. "Every Tokiwadai student is invited and the students are allowed to bring one person from outside the school with them. Some of the students are going to bring their relatives, some students are bringing one of their friends, some students are bringing their boyfriends..."

"That's enough Uiharu," Kuroko cuts her off.

"Sounds like fun," Sachya commented. "Mind if I come along? With the gang gone I'll have nothing to do this weekend."

"Only students, who they invite to come with them and teachers are allowed," Kuroko explains. "You'll have to find someone that's willing to give you their guest invitation in order to join us. Even then, the students are normally paired up with whoever it is they invited with them."

"Well, that bites," Sachya pouts.

"I could give you my invitation," Rutile suggests. "Really."

"What?" Kuroko, Sachya and Uiharu all stopped momentarily and gave Rutile a look of disbelief.

"There's no one else I can invite," Rutile explains. "Really."

"Miss Shirai," Uiharu starts. "Isn't your dorm supervisor taking any unused invitations to bring some children from Cypress Peak?"

"She already has all the invitations she needs," Kuroko answers. "And we were lucky that we were able to haggle the extra invitations for Miss Edasai and Miss Haruue for ourselves."

"Oh yeah I forgot about that."

"What do you mean you forgot!?" Kuroko suddenly bursts. "Do you realize what Sissy had to do in order to get them?"

"What did she do?"

"We are NOT going to talk about that, UNDERSTOOD?!"

"Y-y-yes..." Uiharu nervously answered.

"There's a catch, isn't there?" Sachya asks Rutile.

"Only a small one," Rutile smiles, which seems to unnerve Sachya. "Can you help me pick out a swimsuit, pleeaasee?"

"H-HUH?" Sachya jolted slightly in surprise.

"I didn't bring one when I moved here, so I have no idea what to wear when I get to the beach. I was hoping you could help me out, really."

"You could've just asked Miss Sterling," Kuroko comments.

"I want to surprise her!" Rutile explains. "And I haven't even seen the swimsuit she picked out just for the trip, really."

"Oho..." Kuroko gets a sly smile on her face."You're like _that_ aren't you?"

"W-what? NO! Really!"

"Hmm hmm hmm..." Sachya smirks. "Alright, I could use a new swimsuit myself. After we're done here we should have enough time to check out the mall."

"Miss Shirai," Uiharu talks to Kuroko. "We need to get our own swimsuits too."

"There's no need to worry," Kuroko reassures her. "Miss Wannai and Miss Awatsuki says that the company that we did a shoot for is allowing us to borrow the swimsuits for the field trip."

"Oh, really?" Uiharu smiles.

"Huh, that sounds interesting," Sachya puts her two cents. "I can't wait to see what they look like."

"Unfortunately the field trip divides us according to which dormitories we reside in. The beach owners didn't want us to overcrowd a single beach so we've been split up. Myself and Miss Sopheria are in different dorms. Your best chance to see us is during the visit to the coral reef."

"That's a bummer," Sachya hangs her head, then shrugs. "Eh."

The phone in the office rings and Kuroko picks it up. "Hello? Yes, alright." Kuroko puts the phone back down. "Okay," the Judgment girl addresses Rutile and Sachya. "The officer from Anti-Skill is here, lets finish this and be on our separate ways."

XXX

* * *

"Uwaaa!" Mikoto shields her eyes from the bright sun on the sandy beach. "Feel that air! Kuroko?"

Kuroko shifts side to side, depressed, while holding her neck. " At least you're feeling excited."

"I told you not to use that stringy two piece or anything like it," Mikoto sighs. "You knew that our dorm supervisor was going to bring the children and you still brought it. How dense can you be? Now you're stuck with the school swimsuits."

"Like you're one to talk, that looks like a school swimsuit."

"Hahaha," Saten giggles at the scene while she's followed by Uiharu, Haruue and Edasaki.

"Hey!" Mikoto greets them. "Everyone looks great!"

"Y-you think so?" Haruue asks.

"Come on, let's hit the water!" Edasaki enthusiastically drags Haruue down the sand.

"W-wait for me!" Uiharu chases after them.

"They're sure excited aren't they?" Saten crosses her arms and smiles. "Hey Misaka, I heard that there's going to be a sand sculpture contest. Is that true?"

"Yeah," Mikoto answers. "In a couple hours we're going to split up into groups of two or three and build sculptures out of sand. There's ten prizes!"

"The winners will choose their prizes. Which includes a set of glow in the dark Gekota paperweights," Kuroko sighs.

"Which I'M going to win!" Mikoto declares.

"I'm not so sure about that Mi-sa-ka..." a familiar voice grates in Mikoto's ear.

Mikoto's face just filled with annoyance. She turned around slowly and sees Misaki Shokuhou, along with a bunch of her followers.

"You..."

"Wow Misaka," Misaki exhales. "That's... underwhelming."

"What?"

"Your swimsuit," Misaki points at it. "I had hoped that you would pick out something more... decorative, or risque. What do think of mine?" Misaki poses.

"Like I care what you wear," Mikoto brushes off the question.

"Aww, you're no fun."

"What do you want Shokuhou?"

"I was just passing through," Misaki smiles. "I had hoped that I'd get to see much more of you than I usually do."

"What was that?" Kuroko angrily roars. "I will not have you thinking indecent thoughts about Sissy!"

Mikoto and Saten give Kuroko an exasperated look.

"Ah well," Misaki shrugged and started to walk away. "Oh, Misaka, good luck on the contest. You'll need it if you want to win that prize." Misaki winks.

"You wouldn't-!"

"Byeee Misaka!" Misaki walks away while waving her arm.

"Agh!" Mikoto stomps her foot. "Seriously."

"Sissy? Where are you going?"

"To get a drink, I'll be back."

XXX

* * *

"Miss Wannai, Miss Awatsuki!" a bright blue haired schoolmate calls them.

"Miss Sterling!" Wannai greets.

"Wow," Lilian stares at them in awe. "You two look... amazing!"

Wannai blushes. Awatsuki smiles.

"You look very adorable in that," Wannai returns her compliment.

"Y-you think so?" Lilian looks over herself. It was a frilly white two piece with random colored polka dots. "I hope he likes it too."

"Oh, you brought your boyfriend?" Awatsuki asks.

"W-what?" Lilian jumped in shock, she could hear Isolde snickering in her head. "N-no! H-he's not my boyfriend! I-I... just... know him. That's all. I don't really know that many people outside of the school. He's the only person I could think of inviting."

"Why did you choose that for your swimsuit?" Awatsuki ponders.

"I-I... saw it. On TV... once..."

"Heeey!" another girl calls out.

The three of them turn to see two more girls headed their way. One of them had half black, half red hair wearing a black strapless one piece with the area under her chest, abdomen and just above her waist exposed. The other girl had a white one piece, with a thick bright blue outline around the collar and shoulders, a moderate sized yellow circle around the center of her chest, two short and thick red 'strings' from the circle, a tiny frill/skirt at the waist area, and a black outline around the legs.

"Aww! That's so cute!" Lilian praises with a big happy smile on her face and her hands clasped beside her head.

"So this is the Lilian Sterling you were talking about," the black and red haired girl comments.

"Heeheehee!" Rutile laughs. "I'm glad you like it. It took me a long time to pick out. Really!"

"Yeah it was a real pain in the neck too," the black clad girl complained out loud while stretching her neck.

"You took longer than I did! Really!"

"I already knew what I wanted to get, I just had a hard time finding it. Besides, you didn't need to come with me while I did that."

"I wanted to see what you'd get. Really."

"Um... Miss Sopheria?" Wannai starts. "Who is this?"

"Huh?" the black and red haired girl suddenly realized. "Oh right, the name's Sachya, Sachya Atalanta. Nice to meet you all."

"It's nice to meet you," Awatsuki returned her greeting. "I'm Maaya Awatsuki and this is Kinuho Wannai. How did you and Miss Sopheria meet?"

"We only just met earlier this week."

"HUH?" Lilian, Wannai and Awatsuki all hoped back a bit.

"She's the one that helped my pick out this swimsuit. Really." Rutile happily explained.

"Right after we got in trouble with Judgment," Sachya sighs.

"Wait, what?" Lilian holds the conversation. "What did you do Rutile?"

"We got into a little fight," Rutile sheepishly replies with both hands behind her. "That was it, really."

"A 'little' fight doesn't flatten a park."

"Flatten? You have the same power as Rutile?"

"Gravity manipulation? Yeah, but mine is different," Sachya raises a hand and a bright blue orb shines out above it. "Kat here has to practically touch things in order to affect their gravity. I have to shoot these bombs to whatever it is that I want to use my power on." Sachya throws the orb at an empty patch of sand, the orb explodes and the sand levitates. "Though it doesn't last long, and I can only issue one... command, if you will, with each bomb. But I can fire multiple bombs." To demonstrate, Sachya creates four orbs and fires them around the beach. The sand they hit fly in different directions. "I call my ability 'Gravity Bomber'." The sand that she made float earlier finally drops back down.

"That's amazing," Wannai awes.

"Say, which one of you goes to Tokiwadai?" Sachya asks Wannai and Awatsuki.

"We both do," Awatsuki answers.

"Huh?" Sachya tilt her head. "Then where's the people you invited?"

"We didn't invite anyone," Wannai answered. "We gave our invitations to one of the dorm supervisors so that she can bring some young children along."

"Young children?" Sachya looks around.

"They're at the other beach with the other half of the school."

"What about you, Sterling?" Sachya asks the blue haired girl.

"He said he was thirsty and went to get a drink. He'll be back soon."

"Oh so you invited a boy..." Sachya smirks and puts a hand on her chin while inspecting Lilian. "Hmm..."

"W-what?"

"Oh nothing," Sachya drops her arms. "I probably shouldn't be making any judgements before I see what kind of person he is." Sachya begins to look around the beach as it fills up.

"We should get going," Awatsuki mentions. "We have to meet with Miss Kongou, we're going to partner up for the contest."

"Okay," Lilian smiles. "Good luck!"

"You too," Wannai waves slightly as they leave.

XXX

* * *

"One... orange juice," Mikoto makes an order at a beachside shack and sits down.

"One milk please," a young man with black spiky hair sits down on the other side.

Out of curiosity, Mikoto took a look at the other customer. He does the same and looks back.

"HUH?" Both of them jump off their chairs and point at each other. "What are YOU doing here?"

"My school has a field trip here! Shouldn't you have left Academy City?"

"Um..." The young man shakes the back of his head. "We're not in Academy City, are we?"

"N-no..." Mikoto drops her pointing finger. "I guess not."

Both of them sit back down at the beach side shack. The owner delivers their drinks and receives their payments.

"Are you still trying to catch me?"

"No, I told you that I'm here on a field trip. What about you?"

"The little princess suddenly had some strange urge to go back to Academy City. She said she could feel something calling her."

"Did you go back into the city?"

"We did, without any trouble mind you. What we found was..." The young man took a closer look at Mikoto.

"What?"

"Come of think of it, she looked just like you, except her hair was half white. And she had this really fancy wing for a hairpiece." The young man starts drinking.

Mikoto thinks for a moment... "Oh..."

"Ahh..." the young man wipes his lips. "You know who I'm talking about."

"What happened between them?"

"Nothing really, they just hung out together for most of a day. Though they both seemed to really enjoy each other's company."

"Here you are," A small blonde haired, gothic dressed girl calls to the young man. "We're waiting. Sven's getting annoyed."

"Yeah yeah just let me finish this," the young man takes another couple gulps of his drink.

The girl peeks over to see Mikoto on the other end. "You're... the original, right?"

"Y-yeah," Mikoto scratches the back of her head. "I guess you could say that."

"It's nice to meet finally you," the girl bows. "I didn't expect to meet with her other mother."

Mikoto spits out her drink. "M-m-mother?!"

"She was made with stuff from the both of us, right? I want to talk with you more, but we have to be going. Take care of her, alright?"

"I'd rather stay as an older sister."

"By the way..." the young man finishes his drink and begins to leave. "Were you able to see whose railgun was stronger?"

Mikoto quickly reaches her memory... "N-no... I didn't."

"Really? That sucks. We should definitely dual with our railguns again, I'm really itching to see whose railgun is stronger, yours or mine. See you later!" The young man and little girl walk away as Mikoto looks on.

XXX

* * *

"Sorry I'm late," Touma comes up to Lilian and her friends in only his swimming trunks. "I made a wrong turn at the inn."

"Heeheehee," Lilian giggles. "That's fine. There's still some time before they start the sand sculpting contest."

"So this is who you invited?" Sachy leans forward to get a good look. (He's kind of goofy looking, his body is quite fit at least.)

"Umm... Hello?" Touma became nervous from Sachya's stare.

"Oh right, the name's Sachya Atalanta. I was invited by Kat here," Sachya points at Rutile.

"Kat? Sopheria?"

"Short for Katherine, her first name."

"You two barely met and she's giving you a nickname?" Lilian talks to Rutile.

"It's fine, really." Rutile answers. "Even Miss Misaka started calling me that only the 2nd time we met."

"Where is Misaka?" Touma looks around.

"Hey!" Sachya yells. "Introduce yourself before changing the topic!"

"T-Touma Kamijou," Touma replies.

"That's better," Sachya calmed down and took a closer look at Touma.

"Is... something wrong?"

"No, well, maybe..." Sachya looks back at Lilian, who was having trouble keeping her composure. (Wow he's dense, poor girl.)

"Attention everyone!" A student on a megaphone calls out. "We will now begin the sand sculpting contest! For those interested in participating, please partner up with your invited guest, or go in groups of two or three if that's not possible. Then find a spot to build your work. Now, you're free to build anything you like, such as castles, statues, animals... And you're allowed to use your powers, but using too much will deduct points. You have all day to build what you like, but tell us once you're finished so that we can judge it before anything unexpected happens. The winners will be announced tomorrow and the prizes will be given out then."

"Alright," Lilian casually walks up to Touma and grabs his arm. "Let's go, doofus." She drags Touma away.

"Wha- hey!"

"'Doofus'?" Sachya tilted her head slightly. "She didn't seem the type to say something like that."

"Hey Sachya," Rutile playfully calls to her from an empty spot on the beach. "Do you have any good ideas on what to make? I don't have any, really."

"You're hopeless," Sachya shakes her head as she walks over. "Well, I have an idea, so let's get started."

XXX

* * *

**Author:** Over time I've warmed up to Rutile more than Lilian, XD. Unfortunately I'm having difficulty working out Rutile's backstory, while with Lilian's I have a much better idea, but I'm having trouble executing. Anyway, true to one of the inspirations of Rutile, I made Sachya to go along with her. Hope to see you again, really!


	2. Sand Blast

Chapter 2: Sand Blast

"This should be a good spot," Lilian drags Touma to relatively free patch of sand on the beach. "Now, what to build..." She places a hand under her chin.

Touma loosens his wrist after being dragged across the beach. "You're... the other Sterling, right?"

"Yeah," the blue haired girl answers. "I don't mind if you call me Isolde, that way you have different names for the both of us."

"If you say so, what happened to Miss Sterling?"

"She was getting too flustered to stand up straight, I had to take over."

"Flustered? About what?"

"Ahhh..." Isolde covered her face with her palm. "Okay, look at me." Isolde twirls her body around. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"How do I- *ahem*- how do we look?" Isolde's voice had a strong hint of annoyance.

"You look... nice..." Touma scratches his head.

"Nice?!" Isolde shouted while walking up to him. "That's all you have to say about this? That we look nice? Our swimsuit doesn't even look familiar to you?"

"N-no... I've never seen that before."

"You've got to be kidding me. There's nothing you can say about our swimsuit?"

"It's a little... on the childish side?" Touma nervously answers.

"UGH! Did something happen to you on the beach or what?"

"I was traumatized once, someone with blue hair and in a pink swimsuit."

"What?"

"It was a dude..."

"WHAT?!"

(Isode, it's fine. I was just getting my hopes up. I think we should let it go...)

"Fine, if you say so Lilian. This is definitely not something I want to dig deeper into anyway."

"Is everything okay?"

"No!" Isolde quickly slaps Touma in the face. "Now it's almost better. Almost."

"I don't think I deserved that," Touma rubs his cheek.

Isolde slaps him again, "I suppose you think that you didn't deserve that?"

"No, that one I deserved."

Isolde sighs. "Let's just get started on the sand building. Any ideas on what we should make?"

"Sorry, I don't."

"Well, do you remember seeing anything extraordinary or weird that we can use?"

"Weird? Um..." Touma starts to recall a lot strange things that had happened to him all throughout his memories. "No."

"You hesitated there... whatever."

(How about an animal? They said that we use animals.)

"That's just an example, though it's better than nothing. Anything you want to try?"

(How about-)

"A wolf!"

(What? Hey!)

"It's better than a rabbit."

(What? A rabbit's cuter!)

"And too easy," Isolde gathers mist around her arm. "Now should we make the wolf standing or sitting?"

(I didn't agree to this!)

Isolde's other arm grabs the mist covered one. "What? Hey Lilian!"

"I want to make a rabbit!"

"Get back inside!" Isolde whacks the other side of her face while struggling with her other arm.

"Ahem!" Touma catches their attention and he points behind them.

Lilian and Isolde turn to see a bunch of people looking at them weird. Lilian retreats back inside as Isolde regains full control. "Well, I guess there's no arguing now."

(...)

"Lilian..."

(I'm sorry about that, I guess a wolf would look better than a rabbit though.)

"Don't be like that, come on, help me out here."

(Eh? Help you with what?)

"Well making an animal out of sand isn't easy. Actually..." Isolde turns to Touma.

"What?"

"Come here for a second, I want to test something."

Isolde makes a cylinder of ice and fills it with sand. Then she blows mist into the sand, with the moisture of the mist dampening the sand. "Annd... there." Isolde freezes the sand inside the cylinder. "Here, can you touch this with your right hand?"

"Huh? Alright," Touma does as he was told, the ice shatters and the wet sand falls. "This is going to make sand building a lot harder, isn't it? Just my luck."

"Huh, I thought that the sand would at least stay frozen together." Isolde tries again with another cylinder of ice, except this time she takes water from the sea and splashes it onto the sand, then freezes it. "Here, try this."

Touma touches the cylinder, the ice surrounding the frozen sand shattered, but the sand stayed frozen together.

"I thought so," Isolde sounded confident while tossing the frozen sand up and down.

"I see what you did there," Touma smiles. "Since the first jar was frozen using nothing but your own power, my hand destroys all of the ice that keeps the sand stuck together. But with the second jar, you froze some natural water, which means that my hand can't destroy it."

"Precisely," Isolde nods. "With this it'll be much easier to build our wolf without worrying about your hand too much. But we should still be on the cautious side. Still, ice and sand are pretty heavy, I don't think we can do a normal standing wolf. Say, do you know what a wolf or a dog looks like sitting down? I'm having trouble imagining the hind legs."

Touma shrugged.

(I don't know either...)

"We're in trouble... Unless..." Isolde has a mischievous look on her face. "Hey, Kamijou. Sit!" Isolde pointed down.

"What?!"

"I said sit boy!"

(Isolde! What are you doing?)

"No, no way! Why should I do it?"

"You really want me to do it, while the beach is full of girls that are level 3s and 4s? There's nowhere to hide out here."

Touma looks around to see the beach full of students.

"I also need to see it. I can't make a cast without knowing how it should look like."

"I'm not a dog!"

"It's too bad that you have nothing to say about this swimsuit," Isolde looks over herself.

"Huh?"

"Misaka looked like she really enjoyed wearing this when I saw her wear it. I wonder what her reaction would be when I tell her that you didn't think anything of it. Or better yet, I wonder what might happen if she were to suddenly see you with another girl wearing it? Hehehe..."

(I-Isolde, you're scaring me...)

"Nice try, but I've dealt with stronger people and more dangerous threats."

"Tell that to your legs," Isolde pointed out how shaky they were. "But it looks like you lucked out." Isolde scans the beach to see someone had brought their pets with them.

"What do you mean? Wait, were you just messing with me?"

"Maaaybe. Come on, I'll make the cast, you fill it in with sand. Then we pour some water in and I'll freeze it. Lilian, you focus on keeping the sand cold and frozen."

(Got it.)

"So is there any reason that you want to be in the contest?"

"What do you mean?"

(I think he's asking if there's a prize we want.)

"Oh. There's really no reason for us," Isolde explains. "We just thought it'd be fun, that's all. But if there's a prize that we'd want... I don't know."

(Wasn't one of them a set of glow in the dark Gekota paperweights? Miss Misaka would looove that.)

"But you can be sure that she'd be trying to win that herself. That one angel wing pendant might make a good gift for Angel, I mean she's already got a fancy angel wing hairpiece."

(You're right, it really would look good on her. I hope she likes it.)

"She will. And finally there's also those tickets to a cruise getaway. You could bring Kamijou with you."

(W-WHAT?!)

Isolde twitches slightly from the loud sound in her head. "Ow... It was just a thought."

(B-but-!)

"What do you think Kamijou?"

"W-well..." Touma turns away nervously. "You'd have to win the tickets first, right? But with my luck..."

"What a convenient excuse," Isolde sighs. "It looks like I'll just have to make sure we win then!"

XXX

* * *

"An airplane?" Rutile questions Sachya. "Really?"

"Yeah," Sachya answers. "We both have gravity powers might as well use them."

"Won't we lose points for using our powers too much? It's going to be a problem, really."

"We're just making it hover, there's not much power in doing just that."

"Then how about we make a rocket instead? It should be much easier to make than a plane. And we can launch it after we're done with it. Really."

"I never thought of that," Sachya smiles. "Sounds fun!" Sachya launches gravity bombs around to bring sand to their location, having it pile up before her. "Getting all this sand to stand up straight is going to be interesting."

"We have gravity powers! It'll be a cinch, really!"

"Hahaha, you're right."

"I wonder if there's a noodle I can borrow," Rutile wonders. "If I can find one, we can stand it up straight and increase its gravity to pile sand around it. So we only have to worry about shaping it. Really!"

"Now that's an idea! Let's find a noodle!"

XXX

* * *

Wannai had streams of water floating around her as Awatsuki and Kongou piles up sand, lots and lots of wet sand.

"Is Ekaterina going to be alright?" Wannai asks.

"She'll be fine," Kongou answers. "The school's animal keepers know what they're doing, Ekaterina enjoys being with them."

"Too bad she wasn't allowed to come with us," Awatsuki comments.

"My beautiful imagery isn't complete without her," Kongou sighs.

Awatsuki and Wannai giggles nervously.

"Okay Miss Wannai," Kongou and Awatsuki move back.

"Right, I'll do my best," Wannai directs the water to the sand pile, carefully sculpting it into a shape. A plain rectangular prism.

"That's the easy part out of the way," Awatsuki comments. "Do you have a hang of it?"

"A little, but I think I need more practice before I do the second part."

"It's alright," Kongou reassures her. "We'll start piling up the sand again, you can practice however you want."

"Okay, I'll make sure that I get good enough so that I can catch you and Ekaterina better."

"I'll be looking forward to it," Kongou smiles.

XXX

* * *

"Um... Miss Shirai?" Uiharu stands back behind a furious sand cloud conjured up by Kuroko. "What are we... um... you, making? Something related to Miss Misaka?"

"What else?" Kuroko answers from inside the cloud.

"You do remember that your supervisor is here, right?"

The sand storm calmed down a bit. "That's right," Kuroko thought loudly to herself. "If I continue to proceed with this, she'll probably destroy it, along with my neck, before anyone can see it, especially Sissy. In that case..."

The sand storm started up once again. Uiharu could do nothing but smile nervously.

XXX

* * *

Mikoto and Saten were piling up sand.

"So what are we making?" Saten asks.

"A Gekota!"

"HUH?" Saten has a look of great disbelief. Then she slaps her own forehead. "Oh Misaka..."

"What? It's one of the prizes!"

"You couldn't think of anything else?"

"My eye's on the prize Saten, my eye's on the prize."

Saten shrugs. "Oh well..." She gets back to helping Mikoto build her sand sculpture.

XXX

* * *

"There!" Isolde puts the last bit of wet sand in the wolf's ears. "Lilian..."

(Got it... there, the water's frozen.)

"Okay Kamijou, you can touch the ice now," Isolde calls for Touma.

"Let's hope this works," Touma takes his right hand and touches the ice shell. The shell itself shatters completely but the sand wolf remained intact. "It... worked!"

"Yes!" Isolde pumped her fists to celebrate. "Wow, I can't believe it. Even I was worried there."

"How well do you think this will do?" Touma asks.

"Well…" Isolde looks around the beach at some of the other sculptures. "From the ones here, it should be fine. It's the other beach that worries me, that's where most of the higher grade students go. But we did our best, we should be proud of that at least. Come on, hurry and find one of the contest organizers, I'll stay here and keep the ice cold."

"Right," Touma nodded and left.

"You're keeping the temperature controlled right?"

(Yep. No need to worry about it melting.)

"Okay, I wonder if I can mold it a bit more?" Isolde puts a hand on her chin. "May be some dew to make it shimmer? Or some ice around it to replicate rocks?"

(You better not, we'll lose points if you mess with it too much.)

"You're right," Isolde drops her arms. "Hey Lilian?"

(Yes?)

"I never did thank you for your help, you probably had one of the harder jobs here."

(Hehe… keeping something cold? That's easy for an ice type Esper.)

"Haha, we're not exactly an ice type Esper. But still, thanks. I don't think I would've been able to do this without you."

(I'm sure you'd still be able to do it by yourself. It'd just be harder.)

"I probably could. But I'd rather not think about not having you around."

(Same here, Isolde… Same here.)

XXX

* * *

"And we're ready for liftoff!" Sachya finishes padding off the rocket. "Wow, it looks better than I thought."

"I know, I can't wait to shoot this into the air, really!" Rutile enthusiastically exclaims.

"Oh, you're going to actually fire this thing?" Isolde walked over to their rocket with Touma behind her.

"Lilian!" Rutile runs up to greet them. "You're done?"

"Yeah, we just got our sculpture registered," Isolde points to the wolf statue that she and Touma made.

"Oh that's so cool! Really!"

"Your rocket is pretty cool too," Isolde takes a closer look. "I can't wait to see how this thing flies."

"Well first we need to get one of the contest people to come and take a look at this," Sachya mentions. "Rutile, if you please?"

"Okay! I'll be back soon!" Rutile runs off.

"So," Sachya addresses Touma. "You got a girlfriend?"

"W-what?!" Touma jumped back a bit.

"What? You want to join in?" Isolde asks, smiling large with crossed arms. "I don't mind sharing."

"H-huh?" Sachya looks Isolde confused.

(I-Isolde! What are you doing?)

"I don't have a girlfriend!" Touma protests.

"I heard from Miss Misaka," Isolde explains. "You've got a… harem, as she calls it. She spotted you with at least a dozen different girls one night while you were drunk."

"Wait, really?" Sachya asks.

"Oh yeah," Isolde answers. "She really doesn't like to recall it though, she's… sensitive about her…" Isolde waves a hand in front of her chest.

"Ohhh…"

"But you do tend to hang out with her quite a bit," Isolde taunts Touma. "You sure Miss Misaka isn't your girlfriend?"

"No way!" Touma says defensively. "Are you crazy? She tries to zap me every time I see her!"

"This Misaka…" Sachya turns to Isolde. "Tsundere?"

"Tsundere," Isolde answers.

"Hey!" Rutile comes running back with a contest organizer behind her.

The official looks around the rocket, taking some notes, and takes some pictures, one of them with Rutile and Sachya. "Okay, we'll start judging these tonight once we finish collecting the rest of the entrants. Tomorrow we'll announce the winners at the dinner and they can choose and collect their prizes."

"Gotcha," Sachya creates a gravity orb in her hand. "Now let's launch this thing."

"Oh, oh! Can I do it?" Rutile asks. "My gravity's stronger than yours."

"Sure," Sachya makes her orb dissipate. "I want to see how far it'll fly anyway."

"Same here," Isolde adds. "Actually, hold on a sec." Isolde erupts some flat ice spikes out of her back, some mist begins to blow out of them and gradually jets out until she starts floating upwards. "I'll be over there, send it flying whenever you're ready!" Isolde flies ahead.

Rutile lightly touches the rocket, using her powers she lifts it up slowly, separating it from the beach. "I'm going to send this flying with everything I've got! Really!"

"Hold it," Sachya stops her. "As soon as you let go of that thing the friction and heat will tear it apart. Here." Sachya places a gravity orb in front of Rutile, it hovers in midair. "Fire the rocket through here, this will be create a repelling field to protect it a bit, depending on how strong your gravity is."

"Okay, better stand back, really!"

"Heh," Sachya smiles and starts walking away. "10… 9…"

"8…" a bunch of other people had gathered around them. "7… 6…"

Rutile straightens out her arms and aims the rocket at the sphere Sachya left.

"5… 4…"

Isolde looks back at the beach to see a lot of people gathered around. "Looks like it's going to be a heck of a launch." She creates a helmet of clear ice in front of her as well as creating ice armor around her body. "Get ready for a turbo boost Lilian!" Isolde greatly increases the output of her mist from her wings.

"3… 2… 1… BLAST OFF!"

"HIIIYAAA!" Rutile steps forward and throws the rocket through Sachya's gravity ball and sends it flying into the sky.

XXX

* * *

"Oi, Kuroko," Mikoto takes a look at Kuroko's work. "What the hell is that?"

"Do you like it Sissy?"

"Haaa…" Mikoto covers her face with her palm. What Kuroko made was the Statue of Liberty, with Mikoto's face.

"What did you make?" Uiharu asks Saten.

"A Gekota," Saten answers. "What about you two?" She asks Edasaki and Haruue.

"We tried making a castle," Haruue answers. "But we just made piles of sand. Eventually we turned them into chess pieces."

"That sounds great," Uiharu praises. "I hope you get a good score."

There was a loud boom coming from the direction of the other beach. Everyone turns to where the sound came from and sees something small leaving a trail of clouds.

"What is that?" Saten leans forward a bit. "I don't hear a plane or anything."

"That was a sonic boom," Mikoto notes. "But that thing's not moving anywhere near a plane's speed. A really fast car may be, but not a plane. And it's really, really small for something to be moving at that speed, could it be someone's ability?"

"May be," Kuroko answers. "It looks like it came from the other beach. Should I go check it out?"

"Oh it stopped," Haruue observes. "It's… going back?"

"Okay, now I know that it's someone's ability," Mikoto comments. "But why fly all the way over there?"

"Who knows Sissy," Kuroko shrugs. "We'll have to ask the people from the other beach whenever we're able. I'm going to register 'The Statue of Sissy' into the contest."

"Ugh," Mikoto covers her face again.

XXX

* * *

"That was amazing," Wannai smiles.

"It was definitely an unexpected surprise for a beach," Awatsuki agrees. "And Miss Sterling's power, I'm speechless."

"Whoa…" Rutile begins to lose her footing and tumbles backwards into Sachya, panting hard. "Thanks… Sachya…"

"You're panting? Why?" Sachya asks.

"It takes a lot of power to use gravity… the bigger the object and the stronger the gravity… the more it takes out of me… Really…"

"How hard did you throw that thing Kat?" Sachya ponder.

"For something that big… I'd say at least a couple hundred times… really…"

"What?" Sachya repeats out loud. "That's crazy!"

"Hahaha... I said I was going to use everything I've got didn't I? I meant it, really."

"Sterling," Touma sees the ice girl float back down. "Did you see it?"

"See it? I felt it, but I couldn't see it," Isolde answers. "The speed of that thing was incredible. I bet it could match up to Miss Misaka's Railgun. It just flew by me in an instant and disappeared before I could blink!"

"I hope it doesn't wreck anything up there," Touma mumbles.

"It won't," Sachya replies. "My shield is nowhere near strong enough to withstand that kind of force for that long. What flew past Miss Sterling was probably the last bits of the rocket before completely disintegrating."

"Rutile, are you okay?" Isolde asks the cat girl, helping her stand.

"I'm… a little tired… but, I'm… fine…really…"

"You deserve a rest," Isolde closes her red eyes. They reopen blue. "Okay, it's nap time." Lilian begins to rub Rutile's hair between the makeshift cat ears.

"Mmm…" Rutile drags Lilian to the sand.

The cat girl lays her head on the ice girl's lap, looking extremely pleased and comfortable. Lilian creates an umbrella of ice to shield them from the sun. The ice girl giggles softly. She then notices several pictures being taken by some of the crowd.

"Kamijou, I'm going to rest here for a bit. You don't have to stay here, you can do whatever you want. At least enjoy yourself here," Lilian smiles serenely as a tablet forms behind her. She leans back on it and closes her eyes while still rubbing Rutile's hair.

"Hey," Sachya talks to Touma. "You wanna get buried?"

"No!"

XXX

* * *

"Hehe…" Wannai giggles. "That was adorable."

"We should try that," Awatsuki suggests.

"W-what?"

"Hold still," Awatsuki pets Wannai. "How do you feel?"

"It does feel nice…" Wannai blushes.

"Really?"

"Hey you two!" Kongou calls. "What are you doing?"

"S-sorry!" Wanni apologizes as she and Awatsuki rush over. "Is something wrong?"

They look at their sculpture, it was Kongou wrapped up with Ekaterina lying on a couch suggestively.

"There," Kongou points to a location. "You made my chest a little small."

"I-I did?"

Awatsuki gives Wannai a suspicious stare.

"W-why are you looking at me like that?" Wannai panics. "I-I didn't do it on purpose."

"It might have been subconscious."

"I-I'm not jealous! L-look, I'll go and fix it now."

XXX

* * *

The rest of the day passed relatively uneventfully. Everyone spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing, except Touma. He had to entertain several of the Tokiwadai students concerning rumours around him, his powers and the two Level 5s of their school. And he was buried up to his neck by Sachya, with help from some of the students. After a short nap, Rutile and Lilian join the rest in the beach time fun, all the way until sundown. Then they all move into their assigned rooms in the hotel.

Lilian and Touma began to settle down in their room, which they were lucky to get a 2nd floor room with a balcony outside. A short shower for both and they changed into their sleeping clothes, which for Touma is just his normal street clothes. Lilian has pajamas with an icy texture.

Touma is completely knocked out after changing his attire. Lilian saw him collapsed on top of his bed, she smiles to herself and takes the blanket from the other bed and places it over top of his body.

"Today was an incredibly fun day, wasn't it?"

(It was. I don't think we've ever had this much fun.)

"Heeheehee, especially you."

(What's that supposed to mean?)

"I don't think I've seen you this genuinely happy. You were really enjoying yourself."

(What are you talking about? You make it sound like I never have fun.)

"Your usual fun is a little different from the one we had just now. Normally you'd be just teasing, or taunting. I can't really explain it, but I know it's different. I can feel it from you. This felt really, real…"

(Heh, you just might be right.)

"Too bad I can't see you smile. If there's one thing I really want from you, it's to see you truly smile."

(There's a mirror in the washroom.)

"No! I don't mean it like that! I mean, to see you really smile, face to face."

(…)

"Isolde?"

(Huh? Oh, sorry.)

"Is something wrong?"

(What do you mean?)

"I was expecting something like 'Well too bad we're stuck in the same body' or 'The hard part is getting me to actually smile' or something like that."

(Hey, what kind of person do you take me for?)

"Honestly, I don't know. I hate to bring up this question right now… Actually, I won't. Let's leave this conversation on a high note, okay? Goodnight Isolde."

(Alright. Good night Lilian.) _(I'm sorry Lilian, but, I don't know what you are to me either. I don't know how or why you came to be, but there must be a reason. After all, you appeared after that dreadful night, when mother died…)_

**XXX**

* * *

Author: I never did put any definitive limit on Rutile's power. The only limits were that she had to be practically touching the objects that she wants to affect (she doesn't need to actually touch them, they just need to be extremely close, like a coin's worth, which is why she can deflect any projectiles coming her way without touching them), and that the more gravity she uses, the more tired she gets, which is quite vague and can be easily abused.

I've said it before, Gravity power is flippin broken.


	3. Nightmare Memories

**Author:** I was afraid of this, I've slowed down writing, exponentially. It really is a weird thing, there's a bunch of stuff in my head that I want to get out, but there's a bunch of other stuff that I'd rather do instead (games and such). There were short bursts of writing adrenaline every now and then, unfortunately they can be tiring. At the very least though, I will do what I can to actually finish this one.

Also, I'm warning you now, this chapter doesn't have the fun atmosphere that the previous chapters had. If that's what you came here for, well there's at least the next chapter to look forward.

* * *

"Mom?!" A young girl walks down the steps of her house, she heard extremely loud noises downstairs. There were still more noises, glass breaking, wood snapping, metal clanging, ice shattering and fires raging. The house she was in is covered in flames, black flames. There were also large chunks of white ice scattered about and starting to melt.

"MOM!" She calls out, but there was no sign of her mother. There was a large hole in the wall, as if someone was knocked through it. Looking through it, the house just across the street also had a similar hole. But the house beyond that erupted in an explosion of white ice and black flames.

Loud creaking noises could be heard above her. The young girl runs out to escape the collapsing building she was in. There were people rushing out into the streets to see the strange explosion of ice and flames.

A gigantic mountain of ice erupts out of the ground. Then something at the very top breaks out violently with a flurry of shadows and flames whirling around. The black storm expands tremendously. The little girl instinctively braced herself, creating a shield of ice all around her as the whirling storm of darkness and black flame approaches.

Her defence was weak and she was sent flying into a wall, but she was spared from the flames, unlike the people around her. They were burning in black flames, screaming in agony, but the black flames would leave nothing, it burned everything away.

The girl's horror is met by a sudden chill in the air. A sweeping wind blows through, carrying a drizzle of ice, until it became a relentless blizzard. She isn't affected however, as her own powers give her immunity to the cold. But she knows what, no, who is the cause of this storm.

Large sharp icicles began to rain down as black flames spewed about. There was another eruption, and a woman's body flies through the house, covered in ice until it shatters on the pavement and her body rolls to a stop near where the girl is.

"MOM!"

"Get back Isolde!" The woman waved her arm to motion the girl away. She had long, hip length ice blue hair, golden yellow eyes, dressed in tight white pants, and a short white jacket over top a pink long sleeved shirt.

"Well now..." what appears to be a young man stood atop the roof of the house that the girl's mother just flew through. He had short, messy black hair with a body cloaked in black robes that held a black orb above his heart, and he is engulfed in black flames against the blizzard. "It's already grown this much. To think that you were raising it all by yourself." The man jumps away as very large icicles bombard where he stood. "I must say, I'm disappointed! I was expecting a former Admiral to put up much more of a fight!" The man dashes down inhumanly fast and charges the young girl.

The woman steps between them and blocks his attack. His blood red blade held back by a pure white ice shield. The man jumps up into the sky as icicles erupt at his feet. He bounces around in the air like a light hitting mirrors, completely avoiding large icicles that fly in his direction. The man goes around the two females and tries attacking the girl again. The girl's eyes widened in fear, the man suddenly jumps over just before icicles sprout out at his feet and around her.

The man is met midair by the girl's mother, wielding dual white sabers. They clashed in the air, and rose higher while their swords clashed at high speeds. They separated after a strong impact, the woman falls as the man hovers. The woman summons hundreds of ice pixies around the man and they fly in faster than the human eye can see. The man's black flames form into draconic familiars covered in shadow power, they encircle him at high speed, shattering the pixies they flew in close.

The woman lands on her feet and raises her arms. Several dozen gigantic icicles emerge around the man. She closes her arms and hands, the giant icicles crash into each other, with the man in the middle. Then she falls to one knee.

"MOM!" The girl runs to her gasping mother. A loud cracking noise stops her. Looking up, the large ice star shatters completely with black flames dancing in the center.

In the middle of the flames, an orb glows black. The flames form into the young man, unharmed. "Hehehe... HAHAHA!" The man laughs. "You actually almost had me there!"

A gigantic ice whale appears dives in from above and swallows the young man. The whale cracks up horribly with black flames spewing out and finally shatters from the pressure. The man just floats, smiling. "Heh, too bad I'm here to kill you both. I've never had this much fun before!"

"Kill us?!" The mother stands up, with difficulty. "You're not here to take her back?"

"No, that would be boring," The man answers while he pulls out a decorated dagger, the handle is yellow with a pointed end. "But they don't need it anymore, you see..." The man stabs his dagger into the palm of his other hand, the handle glows and extends into sword hilt with a yellow H shaped crossguard. "They've already made another." He slowly separates the hilt from his palm, the blood from his hand solidifies into a blade, a blood red sword.

"Another? How?!"

"It was soon after you left, they had all the data they needed to create another. Except this one is even less human," He pointed his sword at the girl, his free hand drips with blood. "There's no need for two of those monsters to exist! Especially the lesser one! But just killing it normally won't be any fun, something like that has to have a powerful soul. So I'll just rip its soul out and FEAST ON IT!" He raises his bleeding hand upwards. The blood shoots out of his palm, turns purple and forms a pentagram in the sky.

"Isolde run!" The woman yells out, the blizzard intensified greatly. The girl steps back a bit, very confused and afraid. "RUN!" The woman screams out, creating a thick wall of ice in front of the girl. The girl turns around and runs away.

The man's black flame dragon familiars emerged again and protected him from the storm of icicles and ice pixies. He jumps up and above the pentagram, then flies down to slam into the center. The pentagram stretches into a cone as he forces himself through it, eventually it disappears as his robes are coated with an ancient language, in the same color as the blood pentagram.

Several giant icicles ram into him and ice walls try to stop him, along with stronger blizzard winds. But the man doesn't slow down, rather, he is picking up speed! Even ice whales and an ice titan is easily rammed through.

The woman notices the ground around her cracking up. She creates a pillar of ice to avoid the black dragon flame familiars that erupt out from underneath. The pillar gets destroyed, the woman rolls on landing. She intensifies the blizzard to slow down the familiars, she creates ice swords and slices the familiars when they fly near.

"Isolde!" The woman flies, using blizzard winds out of her back to push her forward.

A dragon flame familiar erupts from the ground in front of the young girl.

"AHH!" The girl falls to the ground. Instinctively, she turns around and sees the man flying towards her.

"Hahahahaha!"

"MOM!" The girl tries to shield herself.

The man reaches the girl, a large white dome erupts when they connect. The dome compresses itself into an ovular shape. Pentagrams written in black appear on the outside.

"Now face true despair! Feel true agony! Let me hear your cries of anguish and sorrow!"

The young girl clutches her head as the world around her turns blood red, she sees images of devastation and death, the voices of wallowing souls screeches in her ears, she can feel her soul slipping away... the wisps of lost souls, a maelstrom of blood, planets exploding, pentagrams and monsters, a six armed horned demon standing on top of piles of bones, finally the world tearing itself apart.

The girl screams, but there's no voice.

"Isolde!" She hears her mother calling out to her, but her mind was already on the verge of breaking. "I'm here Isolde! Listen to me! Hang in there!"

The girl can barely hear her mother's voice, she could not feel her mother's embrace. Her body was being encased in ice.

"I'm sorry, Isolde... This is all I can do for you. But even if I lose my soul, a part of me will always be with you."

The dome blackens, then glows red. The top part shatters as the man in black breaks out, he lands nearby as his dome disintegrates, leaving behind two bodies, one frozen in ice. He pulls out the black orb at the center of his robes and inspects it. A white shine glows from inside it.

"So she gave herself up to protect the monster, pathetic." The shine fades out and the orb becomes completely black once again. "Strange, it doesn't seem complete. Where's the rest of it? Still, it's the strongest soul I've absorbed, perhaps I'll keep it as a trophy." The man places the orb back on his robes and turns around. "Now, for the other one."

The smaller body breaks out of the ice encasing it. She stumbles about, confused. She holds her head. "Mom..." She opens her eyes and sees her mother's body lying before her. "Mom? MOM!"

"It's useless," the man approaches the young girl. "Her soul's gone, that's just a shell now, there's nothing there. But don't worry..." The man grips the blade of his sword. "You'll be seeing her soon..."

"Mom!" the girl violently shakes her mother's body as tears well up in her eyes. "Mom wake up! Wake up! Mom..." The tears flow down her cheeks and onto her mother's smiling face.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" A massive wind blows out from the young girl, the tears that remained froze on her face.

"What the hell?!" the man is forced to shield his face momentarily until he gets his black flames ignited. But the strong winds still forced him to get some distance. "It's awakening... so this is its power..." The man smirks, then laughs out maniacally. "HAHAHAHA! Now things are getting interesting!" He cuts open his hand and spread the blood around him into a pentagram. The sigil glows as the man smiles a crazed smile. "Come Leviathan! Show me your legendary power!"

Wind and ice continue to blow out from the little girl's body, her pupils disappear and are replaced by a crystalline flower of ice.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

XXX

* * *

"-HHHHHHHHHH" Isolde suddenly sits up, controlling her shared body. She breathes hard as she gathers her surroundings. With a hand on her chest she calms herself down.

The girl holds her head and closes her eyes. "That memory again... except for some reason it's a lot stronger. Why?" She looks at her other hand, it's covered in ice all the way up to her elbow. At her hand the ice formed into a fin like shape. (It's never gotten that high before.) She looks at Touma on the other bed and finds him sleeping soundly.

Isolde gets up from the bed and heads for the washroom. She shatters the ice into dust. (I thought I've got that thing under control. That nightmare must have woken it back up.) She looks at the mirror, specifically, her eyes. There was a single spike of ice in front of her pupil.

(Tch...) Isolde closes her eyes and breathes in deep. Mist circles around her body slowly as she concentrates. The mist stops and disappears into the air. She opens her eyes and checks the mirror again, her eyes were back to normal. (I don't know how much longer I can keep this from Liliian. She'll find out eventually. No, I have to keep it from her. This is my problem, not hers.)

Isolde walks out of the bathroom and starts her way back to the bed.

"What the hell?!" Isolde sees the glass doors to the balcony were open, and someone standing over Touma's sleeping body with a short blade.

She launches an ice pillar at the intruder and hits the wall instead. The shadow runs out to the balcony and jumps off.

* * *

"[Kanon!]" a young girl calls out as her partner jumps off the balcony and rushes to her side. "[What happened?]"

"[A stroke of bad luck,]" the woman answers as Isolde jumps off the balcony and stands before them.

Isolde's eyes adjusts to the night and uses what little light to make out the two intruders. One was a young woman with short bright violet hair, her body is cloaked in a black cape with red waves. The other was a girl about her own age, with slightly longer and darker hair than the woman but tied up with a ribbon, wearing black robes tied at her waist with a red sash.

"Who are you?" Isolde asks.

"[She wasn't asleep?]" the girl talks to the woman in a strange language.

"[Of course not,]" the woman answers. "[The _Perpetua Una Dormienda_ only works on sleeping people.]"

(That language...) Isolde listens in. ('Eternal Sleep'?)

"[The Imagine Breaker?]" the girl asks the woman.

"[Still alive.]"

(Imagine Breaker? They're here for Kamijou?)

"[What do we do?]"

"[We have a mission, we complete it!]" The woman charges forward.

Isolde readies herself. The woman held out an arm and paper flies out. Isolde erects a solid shield, the paper embeds itself into her shield.

(They're sharp!)

Paper in the shape of daggers pierce the shield deeper.

(What the hell is this paper made of?) Isolde notices the woman running to her side. The ice girl launches icicles at the woman.

The woman jumps back while throwing paper daggers. Isolde creates a whirling mist to disrupt their trajectory and they land around her instead.

(Markings?) Isolde notices writing on the paper daggers. ('Explo-!') The daggers explode around Isolde, covering her in smoke.

Icicles fly out of the smoke cloud, the woman barely dodges, one icicle rips off a piece of her cloak around her shoulder. The smoke cloud is blown away by windy mist from Isolde, remnants of her ice armor chipping off of her body. Isolde herself is suddenly bombarded by wind. She turns to the source, it was the other girl, using a staff to control the wind.

The ice girl freezes her feet to the around and blows mist against the wind. She manages to push the wind back halfway before the other girl intensifies her power.

While the two girls are struggling against each other, the woman quickly sneaks around behind Isolde, readying her blade.

"No you don't!" A voice from above screams to the woman.

The woman turns around, her face is met with a fist and she is knocked down. Isolde quickly notices her body hit the ground out of the corner of her eye, she notices something tattooed on her shoulder where her cloaked was ripped off.

"That's-!"

The woman gets up while firing paper blades at both Isolde and her attacker. The ice girl breaks one hand away from the wind struggle and makes a solid ice shield. The woman rushes back to her partner. Isolde brings back her shield hand, gathers mist and throws it low. The gathered mist blows underneath the wind storm, spiking up icicles as it chases the woman.

The young girl breaks off her attack and jumps away, sending a wind blast to Isolde's mist ball to scatter it. The two of them regroup.

"[Are you alright?]" The girl asks.

"[I'm fine Sienna,]" the woman answers. "[But now...]" They both look at Isolde as Touma walks beside her.

Touma flexes his wrist. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"Mind telling me what's happening?" Touma asks.

"Sorry, I'm as lost as you are." Isolde answers. "How'd you wake up anyway?"

"It got cold all of a sudden."

"Heh..." Isolde smirks.

"Not to mention some thick block of ice suddenly dropped on top of me."

"Oh, I forgot about that..." Isolde nonchalantly tells him. Remembering the ice column she shot at the intruder

"[Hey Kanon,]" the girl turns to her partner. "[She's supposed to be an Esper, right? So why does her power feel so much like magic?]"

"[I don't know, I've never faced an Esper before.]"

"[What do we do now?]" The girl grips her staff.

"[We still have a mission to accomplish,]" the woman calls out a slew of paper that flies around her body.

"Num praefecto amissa pudicitia?" Isolde calls out.

The two of them widened their eyes momentarily. The woman's paper stops flying and flutters down.

Isolde pointed a finger at them, "Dic praefectum volo loqui ad eum."

"What are you saying?" Touma asks.

Isolde drops her arm, "I'm trying to scare them off by telling them what I can do to them."

"[Let's retreat for now,]" The woman surrounds herself and the girl in a tornado of paper.

The paper tornado disappears, along with the both of them.

"Huh it actually worked," Touma scratches the back of his head. "What were they after?"

"..." Isolde said something inaudible, as if unwilling to tell the truth.

"Sorry, I didn't hear that."

"I don't know," Isolde tells him. "I just saw them sneaking around when I was getting back to bed."

"Now what?"

"If you don't mind," Isolde starts. "Can you get rid of all the ice I left behind?"

"Huh?" Touma looks at her, baffled.

"You asked," Isolde mockingly smiles. "I need to find something." Isolde pops her wings out and jets upwards. A quick scan of the scenery reveals the little beach side town in the night, as well as a temple in the distance on a mountain.

Isolde looks down at the building they were staying in. "I don't see anything... Where could it be?" Isolde dives down and searches the perimeter around, carefully scanning the walls and whatever else she can find. Eventually she makes her way back to where Touma finished shattering the ice with his hand.

"You do good work," Lilian compliments.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

"No, whatever it is, it's probably inside."

"What were you looking for anyway?"

"I don't know exactly, but I do know that they used it to keep everyone asleep. They won't wake up unless we find it."

"Some kind of ability?"

"No, some kind magic."

"What?"

"That's a strange reaction," Isolde notes. "In fact, every time I've mentioned magic, you've been having a strange reaction. You've encountered magic before, haven't you?"

Touma scratches the back of his head, reluctant to answer.

"Well, it doesn't matter now. We need to find that thing so that everyone else can wake up." Isolde walks over to a looked door and puts her hand on it. She fills up the inside with mist, sensing the mechanics inside. The ice girl creates a key out of ice and unlocks the door.

XXX

* * *

"This is one of the last rooms," Isolde mentions as both she and Touma walk into a dining hall. "There's the prizes for the sand sculpting contest." Isolde makes her way towards the prizes.

A set of glow in the dark Gekota paperweights, a pendant with shining crystal angel wings, tickets to a cruise getaway, a group the latest state of the art cellphones in different colors, some more tickets to host a big party at a fancy restaurant, a jewelry set made of rare stones, a very fancy kimono made of the finest material and colors that shines, a piece of moon rock or asteroid, a cluster of colorful rainbow rock crystals, and a huge stuffed animal of some cute mystical creature.

"How in the world did they get these?" Touma asks in awe.

"It's Tokiwadai," Isolde answers. The girl looks over the prizes again, she waves her hand over them all, and goes back to the rock crystals. "Here it is." Isolde picks up the cluster. "I sense this emitting a magical field. Here, touch it."

Touma takes his right and touches the rock cluster. Something shatters.

"Now everyone can wake up in the morning," Isolde places the rock cluster back on the table. "Let's get back before anyone finds us."

"Say, how come you weren't affected?"

"A bad dream woke me up when they activated the spell, it only works on people that are already asleep. And those that don't have the Imagine Breaker."

"So is Sterling asleep?"

"For now yeah," Isolde answers. "Listen." She turns around and points at Touma. "Do not tell Lilian about what happened, understood?!"

"W-why?" Touma asks nervously.

"She doesn't know about magic, and I'm certain you are trying to keep magic a secret from everybody in the City. Besides, I can't mess with her if she knows about it."

"..."

"Got it?"

"Alright, but if they happen to show up again. I'm going to stop them whether you like it or not."

"That's a pretty tough line, the magic world must have really messed you up somehow."

"It's complicated."

"Heh, at least you and I have something in common. Let's get back, quietly."

* * *

They managed to sneak back to the hallway leading to their rooms. But their next door neighbor opens their door. Isolde and Sachya nearly bump into each other.

"Huh?"

"What are you doing up?" Isolde asks in a quiet, whispery voice.

"I was about to ask you," Sachya replied in a similar voice. "I was about to go check out the night life around here. I almost overslept somehow." She looks at a shocked Touma and back to Isolde. "What the hell?"

"Not a word..." Isolde tells her, while pointing at her. "Got it?"

"Alright," Sachya raises her hands defensively. "Alright... I'll keep quiet about you if you keep quiet about me." She turns to Touma, smirking. "Heh, you're more of a player than I thought."

"W-what?"

"Have fun," Isolde smiles as she leads Touma back to their room.


	4. Random Shark

**Author:** For those of you that are here for the fun stuff, this is the last chapter to have them. The rest of them is serious, plotty things (that don't make sense since I'm still trying to make sense of them myself), just a heads up.

XXX

* * *

"You've been acting strange today Kamijou," Lilian tells the boy as their large double decker boat speeds across the water.

The school is treating everyone to a trip to a coral reef, where they all will be allowed to swim in the water.

"I think I'm still tired from yesterday," Touma tells her. "I'll be fine."

"If you say so..." Lilian turns away and looks at the sea. "Hey Isolde, I think something's wrong with Kamijou."

(...)

"Isolde?"

(Huh? Sorry, did you say something?)

"I said something might be wrong with Kamijou."

(What do you mean?)

"He doesn't seem like he normally is, like he's thinking about something."

(He's probably just worried about something back in his apartment.)

"Like what?"

(I managed to see some cans of cat food while you inviting him for the trip.)

"Are you sure? I didn't see a cat anywhere in there."

(I'm sure, that's probably just all it is. Don't think about it too much.)

"If you say so. Hey Isolde..."

(Yeah?)

"You've been acting weird yourself."

(You said that yesterday.)

"But its different today. Yesterday you were really happy, today... I don't know. You've been way too quiet. Did something happen last night while I was sleeping?"

(... It's nothing...)

"What? Wait, did something really happen?"

(No, nothing happened. Trust me.)

"..."

(Lilian?)

"Isolde, because you like to keep secrets from me all the time, I'd normally just leave it right there. Right now though, you're not yourself. Or at least your usual self."

(...)

"Is your real self a secret that you're keeping from me too?"

(...)

"Isolde, promise me something. Whatever it is that's bothering you right now, you're clearly extremely concered about it. So if you can't handle it on your own, let me help you."

(...)

"Isolde..."

(... I'll think about it. But promise or not, you'll be dragged into it anyway. I can't get away from you after all. I've tried.)

"Hey!"

(Hehehe... In all seriousness though, you'll likely find out very soon. For now though, just enjoy yourself here. I won't let this problem of mine bother anyone. So have fun.)

"Alright."

Lilian takes a quick look around the boat and sees Rutile and Sachya. Sachya was looking tired, lying back with her head on top of the chair with her eyes closed. The cat girl was poking her cheek.

"Nngh, stop that," Sachya waves her arm to get Rutile away.

"What happened to you?" Rutile asks. "You look tired, really."

"I am tired," Sachya replies. "More like wasted, I had too much to drink last night."

"Last night?" Rutile tilts her head confused. "What did you drink? I didn't see anything that could make you like this, really."

"You're too young to know."

"What's that supposed to mean? You're only a couple years older than me, really."

Sachya pushes her body and leans forward, she turns slowly to face Rutile and puts a finger on the cat girl's forehead. "I wasn't talking about physical age."

"Wha-?"

Sachya smile and leans back again. "Just a kid. I really need some rest."

"But we're about to reach the reef..." Rutile looked concerned. "You don't want to swim? Really?"

"I'd rather sleep."

"I know! You can sleep with the fishes! Really!"

Nearby, Kongou suddenly spit out the drink she was drinking.

"Hehehe... Hahaha!" Sachya laughs. "You crack me up. I'd laugh more but I'm tired."

"..."

"You were joking, right?"

"Um," Wannai taps Rutiles shoulder. "Miss Sopheria..." Wannai whispers something into the cat girl's ear.

"REALLY?!" Rutile jerks back in shock.

"Just a kid..." Sachya sighs and resumes resting.

(You know what?) Isolde talks to Lilian. (Let me take over, just sitting around here is boring.)

"W-what are you going to do?" Lilian closes her eyes.

"You'll see," Isolde smiles.

* * *

"I wonder what kind of fish we'll see?" Uiharu asks enthusiastically.

"I hope they're colorful," Saten adds.

"I can't wait to try and catch some of them," Edasaki twiddles her fingers.

"Don't," Kuroko warns. "There are fish and coral that are poisonous. Even to the touch."

"You have healers, right?" Haruue asks.

"That doesn't mean you can go around touching random marine life," Kuroko retorts.

"Besides, they're only for emergency," Mikoto adds. "They can't really get rid of the poison, just keep it in check. You'll need actual specialists for treatment."

"Oh," Edasaki slumps. "Well, at least we'll be able to see an actual coral reef."

"We're meeting up with the other half of the school right?" Haruue asks. "I wonder how Miss Wannai and Miss Awatsuki are doing?"

"They should be doing fine," Mikoto smiles. "I wonder if they invited anyone tough."

"I don't think they know many people outside of the school," Kuroko informs.

"You're right about that," Mikoto replies as she looks behind the boat to see the other boat following them. "Huh?"

"What is it Sissy?"

"There's something behind the other boat," Mikoto leans forward to try and get a better view.

The other girls turn to look at the boat behind them. They manage to see... something behind it.

"Now I'm curious," Mikoto mentions. "Kuroko?"

"On it," Kuroko puts a hand on Mikoto's shoulder. They teleport away towards the other boat.

They land on the top deck, behind the crowd of people looking out back.

"What's going on here?" Mikoto asks.

"Ah, Miss Misaka," one of the students with a cat hat greets her. "We're just watching Miss Sterling."

"Lilian? Or is it..."

"Eh?" Kuroko turns to Mikoto in disbelief. "Sissy, how are you on a first name basis with Miss Sterling? And so quickly?"

"Huh? O-oh, that..." Mikoto scratches her head. "It's... complicated. But let's just say that we really got to know each other, kay?" Mikoto smiles and pushes through the crowd.

(Th-that scratching head pose!) Kuroko is distraught. (I'm certain it was his! And... Miss Sterling 'really got to know' Sissy? What does that mean? Is she... could she be... after my Sissy?!) Kuroko pushes trough the people to follow Mikoto.

Down below, Rutile suddenly gets a familiar feeling and her head starts glancing around.

"Something up? You're missing the show," Sachya asks.

"I just have a feeling... Hey, aren't you supposed to be asleep? You're awake now? Really?"

"And miss this? Not a chance. I'll sleep later."

Mikoto makes it through and looks down at the back end of the boat. What she saw was a long pole of ice sticking out from the boat and towards Lilian, who was on a makeshift board of ice. A closer look at the ice chunk on the boat shows a bunch mist spewing out. The ice refreezes as soon as it breaks from the turning of the pole.

Looking out at Lilian, she's bouncing around the water and the waves. The ice girl tries getting into various poses, one handed, the other handed, bobbing up and down waves while holding on with one hand. Several minor jump tricks, switching between a board and skies.

"I didn't think she's the type to do this sort of thing," Kuroko mentions.

"She's not."

"What do you mean?"

"W-well…" Mikoto tries to come up with an excuse. "L-look at her swim wear! Eeeh?!"

"A white, frilly two piece with rainbow dots?" Kuroko observes. "How… childish."

"Y-yeah…" Mikoto nervously agrees. (Why is she wearing THAT?!) "A-and she's way too shy and introverted to do something like this."

"Are you sure?" Kuroko sighs as Lilian pulls off another stunt. "Anyway, she looks like she's having fun. But we're almost there. Let's get back."

"Not yet," Mikoto tells her. "Let's see if she does something."

* * *

(Isolde, the other boat is slowing down, I think we've made it.)

"Then, let's finish big!" Isolde launches a large blast of mist ahead. The mist quickly forms into a tall ramp. The ice girl edges herself towards the jump. "Boost!" Isolde jets mist out from her ice board to increase her speed.

She lets go of the ice handle, letting her ice jets push her. The board hits the ramp, Isolde soars up into the air. She spins around like she's in a tube, and her board bounces off the water until it comes to a stop. Isolde sprouts her wings and starts hovering before she sinks.

"Oooh YEAH!" Isolde stretched out her limbs in joy. "That was totally wicked!"

(It really was, heeheehee...)

"It feels great to do something like that every now and then," Isodle starts hovering back to the boat.

(I don't know why, but you're right. I mean, you can fly, and yet this felt more exhilarating.)

"Its because we weren't in total control," Isolde answers. "Some of the best moments in life are those where you try to stay in control amidst the chaos."

(That sounds really dangerous. I don't want to do that too often.)

"You won't."

(But you will!)

"Ahahaha!"

(Muuu... Hm? Is that Miss Misaka?)

"Where?"

(Up there.)

"She must've seen us from the other boat somehow," Isolde suddenly has an evil smile on her face. "Hee..."

(Oh no...)

* * *

"Looks like it's over Sissy," Kuroko tells Mikoto.

"Yeah, let's go back," Mikoto is just about to reach for Kuroko.

"Heeey Kamijooouuu!" Isodle calls as she floats closer. "How'd I look?"

"WHAT?!" Mikoto and Kuroko screamed out simultaneously.

Isolde was waving to the boat.

"Here's here?" Both Mikoto and Kuroko ask.

Mikoto rushes to the bottom level of the boat. "YOU!"

"Eh?" Touma reels a bit from surprise. "Misaka?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Mikoto instinctively launches an electric bolt at him.

Touma blocks it easily. "What do you mean what am I doing here? What are you doing here?"

"Are you following me?!"

"Following you? You're the one that keeps chasing after me!"

"Wha-? I-I'm not-!"

"Besides, I'm not here for you."

"W-W-W-WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" Mikoto launches another electric attack.

Touma blocks the blast. "Pretty much what I said."

"You want to go?! Right now?!"

"Sissy! Calm down!" Kuroko tries to talk to Mikoto. "You're going to get into trouble. And we're in the middle of the ocean! You could hurt somebody!"

"Umm, Miss Misaka," Wannai intrudes on their argument. "He was invited by Miss Sterling."

"Invited?" Mikoto calms down. "By who? Wait, don't tell me."

"Hiiiii!" Lilian(?) waves as she hovers just outside, in a comfortable seated position. Her face showed a kind of confident, in your face, taunting look with her red eyes.

"Y-you!"

Lilian(?) hovers back onto the boat and closes her eyes. They open blue. "H-huh?" Lilian looks around quickly in panicked confustion.

(Have fun!)

"Augh..." Mikoto palms her face after seeing Lilian's panicked face. "Let me guess..."

"Y-yeah..." Lilian answers.

"Now I'm even more irritated," Mikoto says freely. She walks closer to Lilian. "I should have known you'd invite him of all people. But why that swimsuit?"

"H-huh?" Lilian looks at herself. "Is something wrong with it?"

"N-no," Mikoto is now nervous about the conversation. "I'm just wondering."

Lilian continues to look at herself. "Does look bad on me?" She asks Touma.

"H-huh? Why are you asking me?"

"You seemed to like it when you saw Miss Misaka wear it."

"WHAT?!" Kuroko screamed out.

Mikoto jerked back, her face all red.

"When was that?" Touma ponders.

Those words petrified Mikoto. "Are you saying..." Mikoto's sparks intensify. "That I'm FORGETTABLE?!"

Touma's body is suddenly flung towards the electric girl. Mikoto is too surprised to react and both of them collapse, sprawled on the floor of the boat.

"Ugh..." Mikoto tries to bring her head up. "What the...?" She finds herself underneath Touma. "Get off of me!" She violently kicks him off of her body.

"Oof."

"What do you think you're doing to Sissy?!" Kuroko rages.

"It wasn't me!" Touma sits up.

"Sorry," Rutile apologizes. "But you were going to scare away the fishes, really."

"The fishes?" Mikoto looks puzzled for a bit. "Oh, right... the trip." She gets up with help from Kuroko. "I forgot."

"You should get going soon," Awatsuki tells her. "Before you get in even deeper trouble. I'm pretty sure they could see your electricity."

"Haaa..." Mikoto sighs. "This is going to be hard to explain. They might even keep me from going in the water now. Let's go Kuroko. I'll deal with you later." Mikoto glares at Touma.

The two girls teleport away.

XXX

* * *

A majority of the students and guests play in the water, around the fish and coral reef. Except Mikoto. They considered her too risky to put in the water with everyone else. She's currently sulking in the boat.

"Having fun Misaka?" Misaki taunts from another seat.

"Just be quiet," Mikoto tells her. "It's all his fault."

"Who, Kamijou?"

"How did you know?!" Mikoto stands up.

"I have my ways," Misaki smiles mischievously. "Too bad I can't meet him though."

"I thought you had your ways," Mikoto taunts.

"Right now, I'd rather see him in person," Misaki answers. "So that he could see me too."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Weeellll, you are remarkably unimpressive. Why, I bet he didn't even give you a second glance." Misaki giggles.

"You-!" Mikoto starts to spark up.

"Now now, do you really want to cause even more trouble for yourself?"

"Ugh!" Mikoto stops. "So is there any reason that you're not in the water right now?"

"I have no need, I can see and feel the ocean quite fine."

"So you can't swim."

"What?! I didn't-"

"I knew it."

Misaki face palms, "I can't believe I fell for that."

"Hey, how's everyone doing down there?"

"Are you talking about your friends?" Misaki concentrates for a moment. "They're fine. But I can't find that teleporter."

"Huh?"

"SISSY!"

Mikoto is groped from behind. Mikoto grits her teeth and she kicks Kuroko away. The teleporter crashes into the seats. Mikoto calms down. "Haaa... What do you want Kuroko?"

"I thought... that I could keep you company..."

"I'm fine Kuroko, there's no need to worry about me." Mikoto holds out her hand.

"Are you sure?" Kuroko takes the electromaster's hand and is helped up.

"Yeah, it was my own fault anyway. We're supposed to be having fun here anyway right?"

"How can you have fun knowing that that monkey is here?"

"He's with Lilian, with the other half of the school. There's no need for us to really bug each other."

*SPLOOSH!*****

A giant splash send water a couple stories high.

"What was that?" Mikoto asks.

"Is that a shark?" Misaki puts a hand over her eyes for a better view.

There's a shark that flew higher than the water. A blue mist flies towards it and surrounds it completely, then it turns into an ice cube. The ice cube hits the water with a splash.

"Kuroko?" Mikoto turns to her partner.

"I'm on it," the teleporter replies.

"No need," Misaki taps a button on her remote. "Apparently one of the guests noticed the shark and panicked. Kamijou tried to stop it."

"Eh?!" Mikoto's eyes widened.

"Miss Sopheria and Miss Sterling managed to save him in time."

"Is he alright?"

"He just hurt his hand, Miss Sterling is taking care of him now."

"I see..." Mikoto sighs a breath of relief.

Kuroko is internally raging.

* * *

"You're crazy, you know that?" Lilian took a look at Touma's hand. "Punching a shark? You're lucky me and Rutile were nearby."

"I had to do something," Touma replies.

One of the assistant medics walks in with lotion and wrapping. "Can I do it? The injury is nothing, right?" She asks the medic.

"He just hurt his hand, but shark skin if full of scales, hence the wounds and pain. He'll be fine, here, just apply a little bit around the wound and wrap it up."

Lilian takes the lotion and wrapping, following the directions.

"Hey Lilian!" Rutile waves from the water.

"What's up Rutile?" Lilian waves back quickly before going back to wrapping Touma's hand.

"The teachers said they won't reprimand us since we protected everyone. Also! They said that we're going to have shark for dinner! Really!"

"Hahaha," Lilian laughs at her enthusiasm.

"Is she really a Tokiwadai student?" Touma asks quietly as Lilian finishes wrapping his hand.

"Surprising isn't it?" Lilian smiles.

"I've never had shark before! Really!"

"Neither have I," Lilian calls back. "I hope it's good."

"Ugh..." Sachya groans. "Can you keep it down?"

"I'm going back in the water," Lilian tells Touma. "What about you?"

"I think I'll stay here, I don't want to be a bother," Touma waves his bandaged hand.

"If you say so," Lilian sounded slightly disappointed.

"Have fun," Touma smiles as he tells her.

"Come on Lilian! There's still a lot more fishes to look for, really!" Rutile calls from the water.

"Coming!" Lilian calls back and rushes to the water.

Touma sits near Sachya.

"Hey," Sachya calls for Touma.

"Huh? Aren't you trying to sleep?"

A large splash of water sprays into the boat.

"That's not fair Miss Wannai!" they hear Lilian shouting.

"If you're going to that...!" they hear Rutile. Then another large splash of water hits the boat.

"Let's see you try sleeping through that."

Touma smirks.

"Now, how do you know Lilian and the Railgun?"

"Why are you asking that?"

"You seem to have some kind of stupid magnet on you. I'm just preparing myself in case I get affected."

"Huh?"

"So, how do you know them?"

"I-I... can't really say."

"So much for small talk. Actually, what was your power again?"

"My right hand can negate any power."

"That's it? What's your level?"

"0."

"Really?" Sachya fired a small gravity ball at Touma, whom blocked it perfectly and the gravity ball disappeared. "Wow, huh. Well there goes that conversation too." She lays back down in the chair.

Touma looks over the ocean with everyone playing around it.

"What the hell?!"Sachya suddenly sits up, shocked. "That's you?!"

"H-huh?"

"Some rumours I heard from the streets," Sachya starts. "There's one where a Tokiwadai student tends to rough up some punks, with electricity, but in one story some guy tried to get in her way and managed to block her attack. Another was a group of Level 0s and a Tokiwadai ice Esper beating a well known street gang, and one of the Level 0s can disable powers somehow."

"Um... I don't know about the first one, but the second one is true."

"There's one more..." Sachya stops herself. "No, it's too ridiculous, even for you." (A Level 0 beating a Level 5? No matter what kind of power he has, that's just impossible.)

XXX

* * *

Everyone (except Mikoto and Misaki) had fun in the water whenever they could until time was up. Lilian and Rutile rode the ice cube shark right beside the school boats. Rutile either sitting as an excited kid, or pretend surfing as Isolde jets mist out behind them. It made for an amusing sight.

"Wheee!" Rutile enjoys herself immensely, so much so that even Isolde can't help but crack a smile.

(Heeheehee... her enthusiasism's contagious isn't it?) Lilian giggles inside Isolde's head.

"Yeah..."

(Isolde...) Lilian's voice suddenly become concerned. (You've been really quiet today.)

"I told you that I wasn't going to let my problems mess with your fun, didn't I?"

(...)

"Actually, I'm surprised that you managed to keep your cool around Kamijou."

(What are you talking about?)

"You weren't stuttering, uncontrollably blushing, or stumbling all over the place around him when you bandaged his hand. I think that you've gotten used to him."

(W-what do you mean by that?)

"Annnd there it goes, heehee."

(Isolde!)

"Well, they're giving us free time after this. Got any plans?"

(No. Do you think that he might?)

"Does he look like the kind of guy to have a plan?"

(Well... no.)

Isolde couldn't help but smirk.

(What about you?)

"I've got nothing either. Though I remember seeing a temple when I was flying around last night. It could be worth checking out."

(You were flying around last night?)

"Not now Lilian," Isolde tells her. "But what do you think? Do you want to check it out?"

(We should bring some other people with us, like Kamijou and Rutile.)

"I don't mind, it'll be fun."

XXX

* * *

Everyone took a short break after returning to shore. Several groups decided to explore the town, Sachya among them. Touma is getting dragged around by Mikoto (supposedly to make up for her not being allowed into the water), much to Kuroko's ire. Lilian and Rutile walk through the small forest with red temple archway gates.

"So this is a Japanese Temple," Rutile is wowed by the sight. "I've never seen one with my own eyes before. Really."

"It really is something, isn't it?" Lilian smiles. "Though I still get confused on what kind of temples are what. I wonder if this is one of those ones where you can make a wish."

"It is," a nearby woman answers. The woman had short bright violet hair, and looks like any regular visitor, with an exposed navel piercing. She points to a place in the shrine. "Over there."

"Let's go Lilian!" Rutile rushes forward. "I want to make a wish, really!"

Lilian takes a step, but suddenly stops and turns to have a closer look at the woman.

(Isolde?)

"Sorry, I wanted another look at that piercing."

Lilian retakes control of the body and quickly catches up with Rutile. They find the ema and Lilian teaches Rutile how to make a wish. She makes her own wish. Lilian asks Isolde if there's anything she wants to wish for.

(I do, but having one body make two wishes would look weird.)

"I guess."

"So, what did you wish for? Really?" Rutile asks.

"I didn't have anything to really wish for," Lilian answers. "But I just want to get closer to someone."

"That boy you invited? Oh! Is it? Really?"

"N-no! A-anyway, what about you?"

"I just wished for luck for my clan back home."

"A clan?"

"From my mother's side. It's a small remote village that my dad found while he was chasing a thief for his job. Things have been hard for them the past couple generations, which is why they let my dad raise me when I was old enough to move on my own. Then I only visit like one week each month. Well, until I lost control of my powers and had to be transferred here."

"I hope they get better then."

"So do I," Rutile turns around quietly and maturely walks away.

(Something must be going on back home.)

"Huh?"

(For Rutile, she was... serious.)

"You're right."

(Anyway, we should be getting back, it's a long walk.)

XXX

* * *

The entire school and all their guests managed to fit into the great dining hall of one of the hotels that they were staying in. The special dish is shark. Among the celebrations is the announcements for who won the sand sculpting contest.

1st place went to Ms. Rimskaya and her guest Mr. Nanbu, who chose the shiny kimono.  
2nd was the duo of Ms. Bosconovitch and Ms. Kliesen, they chose the giant mythical stuffed animal.  
3rd place is the trio of Ms. Misumi, Ms. Mishou and Ms. Kiryuu, their chosen prize is the rainbow rock cluster.  
4th was Ms. Diamond and Ms. Momoko, they snatch the set of glow in the dark Gekota paperweights. There was a small thud of someone's face hitting a table, it was Mikoto.  
5th was the trio of Ms. Kusumi, Ms. Shirogane and their guest Mr. Narukami. They decided to get the cruise tickets.  
6th goes to Ms. Hosokawa and Ms. Hayakawa, they collected the moon rock.

"Now for 7th, for their glittering wolf, Ms. Sterling and Mr. Kamijou!"

"I don't believe it..." Lilian's dumbfounded. "We actually won!"

(Heh.) Isolde sounded smug.

"I certainly wasn't expecting that," Touma mumbles.

"Will you two please come up and pick your prize?"

Lilian, nervous as she is, walks up with Touma. She looks at the remaining prizes. The restaurant party tickets, the angel wing pendant, the jewelry set, or the cellphones.

"What do you think?" Lilian asks.

"No idea," Touma scratches his head.

(Just get the pendant, that was our plan anyway.)

"Alright," Lilian picks up the pendant and stares at it.

(What are you doing?)

"Trying to imagine Angel wearing this, heeheehee..." Lilian giggles for a bit then turns to Touma. "Alright, let's go back."

8th place goes to Ms. Marvell and Ms. McGarden, they get the jewelry set.  
9th went to Ms. Sunrise and Ms. Amiella, they take the restaurant party tickets.  
10th was Elesis and Aisha, all that was left for them was the cellphones.

The rest of the dinner passed by while everyone was full of energy. Some students talked about setting off fireworks at the beach. Lilian decided to head straight for her room ahead of Touma.

* * *

At her room, Lilian neatly puts away the angel wing pendant. She then notices an envelope on the table, with nothing written on it. She takes out the letter inside, it had just one line.

"At nobis in templum."

(Meet us at the temple.) Isolde read the line.

"What is this?"

(It's for me, Lilian. We need to go.)

"Isolde?"

(Looks like its time. Let me take over now, and I'll tell you something on the way there. About you, and about me.)

"… Alright."

Touma sees Lilian walk out of the room.

"Sterling? Where are you going?"

"Kamijou!" Lilian seemed especially surprised. "I'm going to join the others in setting off fireworks."

"Oh, really? Sorry, but I'm kind of tired from Misaka nagging at me today."

"That's alright," Lilian waves at him. "Sleep well!"

Touma walks into the room and crashes down on the bed. "Hmm?" He sees a mysterious letter on top of the table and picks it up. "What is this?" He examines the letter and envelope again but finds nothing else. Touma can't make out the words written on it at all.

He rushes out of the room and goes in the direction that Lilian went, but couldn't find her. He goes to the shore to try and find her. All he sees are a bunch of other people, but not Lilian. "Damn it."

"Hey!" A familiar voice calls out to him. It was Rutile. "What are you doing here, and where's Lilian, really?"

"I was looking for her too, I thought she'd be here."

"What's that?" Rutile points at the paper in Touma's hand. "A love letter? Really?"

"What? No!" Touma protests and tries to hide the letter, Rutile quickly snatches it.

"Hmm…"

"Er… Can you read it?"

"Nope," Rutile hands the letter back. "But I know that it's written in Latin, really."

"Latin?"

"There's a Latin course at Tokiwadai, I haven't taken it myself but may be you can ask around if any has. Really."

"Tokiwadai has a what?" Touma's disbelief at the statement is clear, though there is something else that's bothering him. "Hold on, how did you know that it's Latin without taking the course."

"Those letters look like the ones that my father uses in his hunting job. Really."

"Huh?"

"It's an old language, the Ancient Romans used it. But it's believed that the language actually came from Atlantis, the legendary city. They also say that magic originated from Atlantis, which is why some of the strongest spells use Latin, or that most spells are more powerful when cast with Latin instead of any other language. Really."

"HUH?"

"What?"

"M-magic? You must be joking."

"… AH!" Rutile jumped back. "I'm not supposed to talk about father's job in Academy City. I'm so sorry. Really!" Rutile bows apologetically furiously.

"I-its okay, I think," Touma tries to calm her down. "Um… Do you know anyone that might know Latin."

"I think you can try Miss Misaka, she is one of our school's best students and you two seem to know each other, really."

"Misaka," Touma's eyes popped up. "Thanks, I'll try calling her."

"If you find Lilian, tell her to come if she can. Really!" Rutile scurries over to the beach.

Touma starts walking away and picks out his cellphone. He dials a certain number and waits for it to be picked up.

"WHO IS THIS HOW DARE YOU CALL SISSY!"

"oi. kuroko, give that back."

"But Sissy!"

"i said give it back!"

"Aiiieeeee!"

Touma wasn't sure what to make of what he just heard.

"Hello?"

"Um... hi Misaka."

"You? What do you want?"

"I'm looking for Sterling, is she with you?"

"Lilian? No, she's not. Why?"

"She disappeared."

"She disappeared?"

"When I saw her come out of the room, she said she was going to the shore and set off some fireworks. But I just checked and she's not there. And I found this strange letter in the room after she left."

"A letter? What does it say?"

"I have no idea. It's in another language."

"Where are you, I'll take a look at it."

"Just outside the hotel at the other beach."

"Alright, I'll try calling her first. If she doesn't answer then I'm on my way."

Mikoto hangs up. She looks back at her friends crowding around a burnt and crispy Kuroko. She finds the number she's looking for. She waits patiently as she hears the phone ring. No answer. She tries one more time. Same result. "Where is she?"

She looks back at her friends again. "Sorry." Mikoto charges herself up and jumps away.

* * *

Somewhere else, Isolde looks at the entrance to the hill to the temple. She steps on the path silently and creates a gigantic wall of ice around the entrance.

**XXX**

* * *

**Author:** Minor cameos in the names of the prize winners. 1st place is from SRW, 2nd is from Tekken, 3rd is from Pretty Cure, 4th from King of Fighters, 5th is Persona, 6th from Samurai Warriors, 8th is Fairy Tail, 9th is Project X Zone (really Sakura Wars and God Eater), and 10th is Elsword.


End file.
